Generations
by CassieCullen
Summary: Bella's life changed forever when Edward left her in the woods, alone. Looking for a fresh start, she moves as far from Forks as she can and reconnects with her mother's family. What happens when she the supernatural collides with her new life?
1. Playing House

Stephenie owns it. I don't even own my car yet.

This is my redo. I'm 15 chapters in. This may look familiar, you may have read it before, but it's been awhile.

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**Chapter 1: Playing House**

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_The veil was thinning. That thin wisp of curtain between the living and the dead was getting sheerer by the day. It wasn't as if its coming was a surprise. It shouldn't have been, not to anyone, not to me. I knew that there were mythical creatures in this world, but there are always skeptics, those that will go out of their way to disbelieve you. The hardest part is when a complete stranger will believe your crazy out of order world, but your family wants you committed. That is my world. This is my story. You have been warned._

"That's the last of it," I called into the house. I glanced at the floor, and the four boxes and two suitcases that were overwhelming the small dining room. How sad was that? My entire life had been reduced to this. The worst part was that two of those boxes were shoes. I needed a twelve-step program. Or maybe what I really needed was a walk-in closet. Alice must have really worn off on me. Even all these years later, my "old family" still had ways of seeping into my life. I thought of them often but hadn't seen any of them since the beginning of my senior year of high school. They left abruptly and I hadn't heard from them since. I hadn't even had a proper goodbye.

It had been years, it was beyond time to move on. This was the final stop in a long and tiring journey. I needed a change and this was just the type of change I had been seeking. I had been searching for an apartment for months, but with my budget and lack of furniture, the only ones I could afford were in places I wouldn't even drive through. At least the house was furnished. It was one less thing to worry about. I looked around and sighed again. It was furnished…for a ninety-three-year-old woman. There was the infamous plastic on the furniture, doilies on the coffee tables, and crucifixes in every door frame. And to top it off it had that smell; old people smell. It smelled like moth balls, Efferdent, and Ben-Gay. This was going to take a LOT of bleach.

"You sure?" I heard him call through the garage. I was pathetic. He had to be rethinking this idea. I was unsure if I was even ready for this. The house was cluttered but seemed cavernous; it was on a main drag but backed up to the state forest. Could I really live here alone? I wasn't sure, but I was going to try. I had to, it was time to get my life back and start fresh. It was time to get away from all the painful memories and my strange, supernatural past.

"Yea, I'm sure," I called back.

"'Kay." I jumped. I had been lost in my own little world thinking about exactly what I had gotten into. For the first time in my life I was second guessing a decision, and to boot he had come up out of nowhere.

"Well, if that's all…" my uncle trailed off, clearly confused as to why I was doing this.

"You know you could always get a roommate or an apartment closer to school." I know he meant to say that as if it were the most natural thing in the world. I think he thought that I was crazy for even attempting this. Maybe I was.

"And have to pay for it? Or share?" No way! Freedom and free rent? Not something I would give up. Something I had been looking forward to since my mother had been given my grandmother's house. I had barely known my grandmother, she had died when I was a kid and my mom wasn't exactly close to her. So imagine my surprise when I found out that my grandmother had left my mother a house. That had nothing on the shock wave that went through me when my mother handed me the keys. This was not the news I would have ever expected not in a million years. I needed to remember to make spontaneous trips to see my mom more often.

Living alone would be easier. It wasn't like I was anti-social; I had friends and a steady boyfriend now, but I wasn't very good at sharing, and I was reveling in the fact that I would now have my own bathroom with no need to share with five other people. I had grown up as an only child, and the past few years had been sheer torture on me. I had always thought of myself as a selfless person, and maybe I had once been. Now I knew better.

No one may understand this, but this was something I had to do on my own. My life have been destroyed five years ago, during my senior year of high school, the year that most teenagers look forward to and all adults look back on with fond memories. I had none of those; my life was shattered a few days after my eighteenth birthday which happened to be a few weeks into my senior year. It seemed trivial to most, a high school romance ending should not be the end of the world. Yet for me it had been. Five years later, I was mere months away from graduating college and truly starting my life, and yet I could barely think of the boy who broke my heart. Never mind speak his name.

It had taken my father, Charlie; four months to come to the conclusion that I had to leave. He was convinced that I had needed a fresh start. He decided to send me to Florida; it took him another month to convince me to go. Unfortunately, it was that same week that my step-dad finally got the break he had been waiting for. Phil was now on the roster of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and although Charlie had said the Marlins were better, you could tell he was excited about the prospect of meeting more professional ball players.

"As long as you're sure?" he asked again.

"Uncle John, I'm good, really. You should go home; Aunt Joyce is probably getting pretty impatient. You're holding up dinner." My aunt was meticulous. Dinner was at 6pm every night without fail, and my uncle HAD to be there. He only had about ten minutes to make a thirty-minute drive.

"Go! Really, I'll be fine!" He looked conflicted, as if he wasn't sure that was what I really wanted.

"Go!" I said again and as I was debating whether or not I was going to have to start pushing him out the door, he turned to go.

"Bella…" he began, and I saw the sadness in his eyes. It broke my heart. I almost changed my mind. Almost.

"Uncle John! C'mon! Seriously? I'll be fine. I'm a mile from Aunt Joyce's sister; she all but told me she'd be doing random searches…" I chuckled at that thought. Sue was a handful, but so much like my mom that I didn't mind.

"And I'm only a half an hour from ho… your house…" I had almost said home. Although home to me was a foreign concept. I hadn't felt like I had a home since the beginning of my senior year of high school. It had been four years since I had suffered a devastating break up and ran away from my childhood home. It was time to move on. It was time to finally find a home.

"I'm sure Casie and Colin are already fighting over who gets my room."

He smiled at me and laughed. "Actually, your Aunt called me on the way here. Stef already claimed it. She had her stuff in and the door locked before the twins could even start!" I laughed, too, only I was smarter than that. Stefanie may have always been the quiet one of the group, but once she put her mind on something there was just no stopping her. I knew that if Stef wanted the room she would get it. I knew better than to underestimate Stefanie. She always got what she wanted but in a very quiet and unassuming way. No one ever got mad when Stef took something from him or her. So she had my attic room.

Well, if I wanted to go back I could always share with Casie. I cringed at that idea. Casie and I were like oil and water. Casie reminded me too much of my past for me to ever get to know her. Not that she would have given me the chance to. She still hated me for disrupting her perfect family dynamic. She hadn't even known who I was until I showed up at her doorstep five years ago. I had been such a zombie that first year, so Casie had lost a lot of her popularity status because of her "freak show" of a cousin.

It's funny how in a matter of months I had managed to have the entire senior class of Narragansett High convinced of my insanity. I probably could have convinced them that I was sane, that I was normal even. Maybe actually try to fit in, instead of embracing the silence. What I did do however was to ensure that no one bothered me. I cultivated an aura of insanity and played the part well. Hell, I didn't even talk at that school unless I was asked a direct question and even then I didn't always answer. I had spent the month of March in detention just because I didn't feel like talking at all. That was unacceptable in this preppy, beach town. The good townsfolk of Narragansett also turned their noses up at my wardrobe which consisted solely of black clothes and silver jewelry. I was in mourning for a life that I had lost while desperately trying to figure out how to make myself a new one.

And of course if the seniors thought that Isabella Swan was crazy it wasn't long before the underclassman did to. I was only at that school for a total of four months but I had managed to give myself a horrible reputation and destroy my cousins all in one fell swoop.

High School girls tended to think that crazy was contagious. She resented me for disrupting her idealized image of high school. Everything bad that happened to her family, no matter how trivial, she blamed on me. She was fiercely protective of them. Not that I entirely blamed her, but I had wished she had at least tried to let me in. At least I had dealt with that before. I shivered at the memory. Every member of my new family had aspects of my old one. Eerily so, even down to their physical attributes. Casie had Rosalie's supermodel body and flowing blond hair, she could have been her twin if not for Casie's ice blue eyes. Every now and again those memories would push through, raw and painful. I locked the memory away into the recess of my mind and brought myself back to the present.

"All right, I'm going! Do you want to come home to eat? I don't think that kitchen's been used in years. I don't think you should use the stove until you have a chance to clean it," he said that with a tone that I was sure meant he was questioning my decision to do this. If I were being honest with myself I would have admitted that I was as well.

"I wasn't planning on it." I was afraid to even enter the kitchen. It looked like a set to a Golden Girls episode. I was planning on Burger King. "I'm fine. Really! Go! Now! Before Auntie gets any angrier. Colin won't be happy if he has to wait any longer to eat."

"Colin hasn't stopped eating since he turned fifteen! I don't think he's gone a minute in the past three years without something in his mouth." It was true, but my cousin had gone from a five-foot-nothing toothpick to a body builder in just three short years.

"Uncle John, go!"

"Okay, behave Bella. Don't go and get yourself in any trouble." My uncle had taken the 'look after my girl' from my dad way too seriously. My police chief of a father had nothing on my uncle when it came to protecting his kids. I loved it though, he and his family were the reason I had healed from my high school love and was able, as my first love had asked of me, to move on. 'Behave, Bella' was really Uncle John code for don't get knocked up or arrested and if you do, I don't want to know about it. I smiled to myself as I walked back into the house. He treated me as if I was his own and I loved it.

"Bye," I called over my shoulder as I walked back in the house through the garage, hitting the button to let the door close down. I heard his truck start up, then back over the lawn as he turned to make the trek home. I walked through the breezeway and paused in the doorway to the dining room and sighed, inhaling through my nose. I then went to locate the bleach. I decided to start with the bathroom. Not for any other reason than it was the smallest room in the house. At least I would feel like I had accomplished something. As I started up the stairs to the converted closet, I swore I heard a noise coming from the living room. I looked back and the door to the breezeway was open. I had forgotten to shut it. It was January and it was COLD. I ran to shut it, and then bound up the stairs. I felt as if someone were watching me. Stupid, creepy old house, giving me stupid creepy déjà vu. I pushed the thought out of my head, cranked up the heat, and got down to work.

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Just the set up. We'll see the Cullens shortly but for now we need to catch up with Bella. This will be updated once a week on Thursdays after I get the first 2 chapters up. I am honoring the black out though, so I won't be responding to reviews on June 8th and 9th.


	2. Unwelcome Guests

**Chapter 2: Unwanted Guests**

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**So many of you know that this is a re-post of another story I have written. I caught the flu from the pigs and discovered a tumor in my kidneys when I had the check for a secondary disease. I am now cancer free, and excited for you all to see where this goes.**

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It was a rough night in an old house as it creaked and groaned in the cold winter wind. Passing trucks would cause the old house to rattle the paintings on the walls; and at times, even my teeth would clatter. The noises of the house were keeping me up. I had become accustomed to the familiar voices of my family as I slept. No voices were to be heard tonight. I realized I hadn't been alone in a house in years. All the creaking of the floor boards and the pipes moaning was disconcerting. At one point, I swore I heard footsteps on the stairs. Although, I can't be sure as I was too scared to get up and look.

"There is nothing here; I am letting my imagination run wild. There is nothing here." I kept chanting over and over to myself. Wasn't talking to yourself the first sign of insanity? I shrugged that thought off; I knew I was slowly going insane so why dwell on it. I kept the mantra up as my pulse quickened and my heart raced. I tried to will myself to believe those words; I was having difficulty with that, though I knew it was the truth. There was a time in my life when the thought of the supernatural moving up those steps would have brought me joy, not panic. Instead at that moment I was terrified. So instead of forcing myself to realize I was over reacting, instead of walking to the stairwell to confirm or deny my insanity, I did nothing. In other words, instead of doing the normal thing, I just lay in bed. As the hour passed I grew more and more anxious. I was sure that it was foot steps now. I could hear them throughout the house, even over all the other noises. I debated getting my phone and calling someone just to calm down but that would have meant me crawling out of bed. I was paralyzed by that thought. As every hair on my body stood on end and my stomach began to churn and my heart began to race, I threw the covers over my head and buried myself into my pillow trying to will myself to relax.

I missed Collin. When I first came to Rhode Island I was wound up tight. He had his own way of calming me and over the years I had spent many nights sleeping on his futon letting his soft snores lull me to sleep. I hadn't realized how much I had relied on his presence until tonight. There was only one other person who could calm me and my heart broke a little more at that thought. I knew Jasper would have been able to relax me enough so I could actually sleep, albeit it in an entirely different and magical way. I started to think this whole idea was wrong. It kept bringing back the memories of my old family. It didn't help that so many of the things in this house were from the days when my old family was still human. I had fallen in love with the impossible, and when it had gotten tough, really tough, the impossible left. Yes, vampires craved blood, and yes Jasper had tried to take mine, those were just the facts. I never blamed him and I never would. That was the reality of the situation. After all it was only instinct on his part and besides that, entirely my fault.

In typical Bella fashion I had cut myself and Jasper had reacted in a very natural way, he had lunged at me. Although I had never once blamed him, I knew in my soul that Jasper did indeed blame himself. Add to that my stupid, over protective vampire boyfriend and there was no other solution to the problem. I knew that Edward had kept them from me for all these years. I just could not accept that Alice, my best friend, Emmett, my big brother, and Esme and Carlisle, my second parents, would just abandon me without as much as a goodbye. I could understand Jasper; he blamed himself so he would stay away. Rosalie hated me, so much so that her not contacting me was pretty much a given. I was sure she was simply relieved to be rid of me. No, the blame lay with one person and one person alone. 'Edward!' I silently screamed. It was all his fault. My crazy life and my current situation should have been his burden to bear.

As pathetic as my life had become, I tended to blame him for the whole fiasco. He always thought he knew what was best. To this day I still think it was all a huge mistake. I had given up everything to be with him and lost myself in the process. Part of me wasn't sure if the break up was the only mistake that had been made. Perhaps the entire relationship had been one, after all if it hadn't happened maybe I wouldn't be so depressed. His parting words to me were always at the forefront of my mind. I was his "distraction." I had a hard time accepting the fact that I had allowed myself to be played like that.

I still missed all of the Cullens deeply, and not a day went by that I didn't think of at least one of them. I had recently decided not to focus on the past so that I could live in the present. It had been almost a year since I had made that declaration to myself. I thought it may have been working. In the beginning, when he had first left, I had clung to the hope that part of Edward still loved me. But as the years wore on, I began to believe what he said all that time ago in the thick Washington forest. I had merely been a distraction.

Moving on had been tough, and I still wasn't healed, hell I hadn't even really tried for a better part of four years. My mind began to wander back to my junior year of high school and the summer after. I shook my head to rid myself of the memories. No matter how I felt, it was time to move on. They had left me and none of them were coming back. It was time to truly put the past behind and move on with my life. Although that was proving easier said then done.

I finally fell asleep around four and slept for exactly forty five minutes before my alarm went off. Cursing my idiocy, I turned the buzzing bastard off and I drifted back to sleep for exactly thirty six minutes when it went off again. It continued to randomly go off a few more times until I gave up and unplugged the thing. I had briefly thought of tossing it out the window but decided that it was far too cold for that. I would definitely be unable to sleep if the cold winter morning touched my face.

I started debating with myself as to why the alarm wouldn't stop going off. After some far fetched theories, most of them revolving around ghosts, I concluded that I must have been too tired to turn the thing off properly. It had never worked right and I'm sure it got bounced around in the move. I had packed it in with my shoes. By seven I realized that there was no way I was going to be able to sleep anymore. Between the weird noises, the bastard alarm clock, and the bright sun streaming in both windows I was awake. Awake but caffeine deprived. I went to the kitchen, was at the coffee pot when I remembered that I was alone. I was more tired than I had originally thought and I would have to make my own coffee. I sucked at making coffee. I searched for my purse and my keys. Thank God for drive through.

Bracing myself for the cold January morning I raced out of the garage and dove into my truck to get it started. It was freezing and the beast protested. After the third try I finally got the engine to turn over and ran back into the house to wait for the heat to kick in. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to leave just then. My old truck needed coddling. He had to be warm to move or he would just stall out as I tried to turn out of the driveway. I still can't believe he had made the cross country trip without a major blow up. I owed Jacob Black a HUGE thank you. Who knew someone so young could turn out to be such a talented mechanic?

Ten minutes later I was headed down the road in my pj's and a baseball cap to the Dunkin Donuts on the corner. That's the best part of living in Rhode Island. There's a Dunkin on every corner, and if you live here, you know where they all are. The official drink of the state should be coffee. I couldn't be sure but I thought that it may actually be. I had lived near the coffee capital of the world and somehow never craved the stuff. Moving here had changed that. So much had changed since I left the sleepy town of Forks, Washington. I headed to the drive- thru on auto pilot and mindlessly ordered.

"Medium, Iced, Regular" I mechanically replied at the speaker to the voice who had asked if I wanted a flatbread sandwich. It was standard jargon for this state. Apparently I was in another country though. I had to explain to the cashier twice that yes, I really did want an iced coffee in January and that regular was cream and two sugars. Did she need a translator? Or did I move to a foreign country? I really was only a half hour from my uncle's. I know the state was small but I swear I didn't see a 'Welcome to Massachusetts' sign on my way to the coffee shop.

It took far too long to get my caffeine and of course it was screwed up. It was way to light to be regular cream. Ah, well. I popped the straw in and made a mental note to never hit this drive through again. I'd try the one on the other corner tomorrow. I took the left and wound my way back down the vaguely familiar streets to my new home. It was Saturday. School started up again on Monday, as did work, and I had a lot to do if I wanted to be settled by then. I absentmindedly began to twirl my hair, I was tired.

As I neared the house I finally took a long swig of my coffee. The only thing that stopped me from spitting it out was the fact that I was in the comforting warmth of my truck. "Ugh, don't tell me this is decaf!" Great, now I was talking to myself. That was the first sign of insanity. This day was going to suck! I groaned and made the final turn into the driveway. I put the truck in park and sat in the driveway going over my to-do list in my head. There was a LOT to be done and I had no clue where to begin. This was mostly because I didn't want to begin. I wanted someone else to do it for me, but I didn't have anyone to pull a Tom Sawyer on, so I took the key and turned the lock next to the garage door. It groaned to life. I walked in sucking down the coffee and regretting not getting a large. It was already halfway gone and it wasn't even eight yet. Time to get to work; I was still thinking of who I could get to white wash the fence for me. Although in this case, it was more like disinfecting the house than actually painting.

Uncle John was right. The kitchen was a disaster. Grease stains and stickiness of meals long cooked coupled with months of abandonment had taken their toll. I hadn't noticed before but the faucet had a slow leak. Or was it turned on purposefully? Only one way to find out. I turned the taps. The dripping stopped. It was left on purposely, probably to stop the pipes from freezing. I had decided to investigate that theory thoroughly before I got to work being the master procrastinator that I am. Unfortunately that led to the realization that the pipes weren't even the biggest issue.

The house had a rodent problem and I had a weak stomach. Ugh... I wondered how much an exterminator would cost. I exhaled. I had like $200 to my name. The rest of my hard earned money was now in the hands of the Bursar of Rhode Island College. If I wanted to eat this month I was going to have to do this myself. But could I con someone into helping? This was worse than I ever could have imagined.

I had to run to the store. I needed bleach and trash bags. And dish soap, LOTS of soap. I would have to wash all the dishes by hand to remove any trace of the intruders. There was no dishwasher. This kitchen looked like it belonged in 1982. The only modernization had been some newer appliances. Newer for the early eighties but still at least twenty years old. It did have a certain charm and I knew that once it was cleaned up it would be a fun place to cook in, albeit a bit cramped. I laughed at that thought though. I hadn't used a stove since I had moved out here.

Charlie, my Dad, had thought that I was an amazing cook, but after eating my aunt's meals all these years I lacked the confidence I needed to ever attempt to create in the kitchen again. I pulled myself out of my daydream and decided to get to work, starting with the stove. As I moved it away from the wall I was relieved that my less than stellar cooking skills had sent me to BK last night. It was a wreck. There was clear evidence that many, many little disease factories lived here, not the least of which was the chewed up mess of wires trailing from the back of the appliance to the old outlet two feet away. How was this house still standing? It was a disaster waiting to happen! I needed help. I needed someone to get this stove out of here. Crap! I needed a stove now too. I wondered how those microwaveable macaroni and cheese's were. Guess I was going to find out.

Suddenly this free rent thing didn't seem so free. I was going to need help and fast. At that moment, I heard the front door open. That was timing! It had to be Sue, popping in to check on me. I smiled as I went to the door, at least she could help get this thing to the curb. As I walked through the dining room I could smell a cigarette burning. Why was she smoking in the house? I didn't even realize that she did smoke. I certainly had never seen her. I would have to let her know that I didn't want that in the house. I was going to have to work too hard to get this place clean I wasn't about to allow others to ruin it with nicotine stains. I looked at the walls. They were yellow. I wondered if stores gave a bulk discount on bleach.

I got to the door but it was shut. Huh? I didn't hear her go upstairs and I would have seen her if she went into the dining room. I had just come from that direction.

"Sue?" I called out. Suddenly uneasy, I was sure I had heard the door opening. I was even more confident of my sense of smell. I knew I had smelled a cigarette. I searched the house. I was growing more anxious with each passing moment. Upstairs, the living room, even the basement. Nothing. As the search continued I could feel the panic well up into each and every pore of my body. I kept searching as I felt my blood pressure and heart rate rise. On my third trek through the house I finally realized I should check for her car. I wasn't surprised to see that the only vehicle in the driveway was mine. So I was letting an old house drive me crazy. I wondered what would happen if this got any worse? If you're crazy, can you commit yourself? The last time I was threatened with the asylum I had run. I now had a vague feeling of how Alice must have felt when her parents had dropped her off at the mental hospital all those years ago. It was not pleasant. Between the amount of work I had to do and my imagination working overtime I decided it was time to call in reinforcements.

I thought of calling Sean and stopped. He was in Boston for school. If I called him he would come. I knew he would. But it was a 90 minute drive on a Saturday and closer to two hours in the Monday morning rush. If I called him to come down he would stay here until he absolutely had to leave. I knew I was imagining the noises but I was afraid that he would think I was crazy if I told him about them. He already thought I was a little off. I never really talked about my past with him, and he still had no idea about Edward. I had only ever told him that he had been my first boyfriend, and not a word more. I figured that my new boyfriend wouldn't want to hear that I already met the love of my life, and that he was not it. Not that I didn't love Sean but he could never compare to Edward. After a few drinks which were an inevitable part of a Saturday with us I knew I would tell him. The only time I would divulge anything from my past was when I had had too much to drink. I was extremely grateful that I had outgrown the whole sleep talking thing. I still dreamt of Edward nearly every night and this house was bringing up too many memories. If he did come over I would give away too much. Not something I could risk. While I would edit, it would give him the excuse he wanted to move in with me. To protect me. Like I was some sort of weakling. Not cool and certainly not necessary. I would not allow someone that much control over me again. No matter how much they thought they loved me. I had been through that before and wasn't going to allow it again.

I had never lived on my own before. I had lived with my Mom, then moved to Forks to be with my Dad for a year, and then moved in with my Aunt and Uncle. I had even tried the dorms at school, and a two bedroom apartment with four other girls. I had only managed a few weeks with that last one. Four girls and one bathroom is my own personal version of hell. I wanted to try this. I needed to do this on my own. I could do this. I steeled myself for the task at hand and began to mull over who to call.

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**So what do you guys think? Better? I hope so. See you next week. Please review, but don't be upset if I don't respond. I am participating in the FFN ban for Friday and Saturday but I will respond after and this will be up on TWCS. The plan is to update this on Thursdays each week. So I will see you all next week! **


	3. We are Family

**Chapter 3: We are family**

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**An early update because I finished the chapter I was working on early. I am ahead of y'all by several chapters and plan to keep it that way. That said from here on out these chapters are coming on Thursday mornings from here on out, so see you next week!**

**Thanks to the girls at PTB, I owe you huge, but I am keeping the packey in. For those of you that don't know a packey or a package store is how we Rhode Islanders describe a liqour store. We can't buy beer at a gas station. We buy it here. So thanks to all of you who understand that I can't part with this term.**

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After having a fifteen minute debate with myself as to whom I wanted to call for help, I caved and decided that I would just call Stef and Colin. I wouldn't even bother to ask Casie; that would just be five minutes of my life that I would never get back. It was almost ten in the morning by the time I finally came to that decision. Stef would be up, I could count on that. I didn't want to call the house though. I didn't need my aunt here. She would just huff and puff until I knocked her down, mostly because she liked to meddle. Then again, I guess all mothers were like that. Not that I would know. Renee, my mother, was and always had been more of a child than parent. Aunt Joyce, on the other hand, well she had issues with control and letting go. If I called to ask for Stef or Colin she would come too. It was all the excuse she would need.

I decided the safest way to do this was to text Stef. She still hadn't quite figured out how texting worked so this would be interesting. It was an issue Colin and I regularly teased her about, she was definitely an anomaly, a teenage girl who couldn't text. I kept threatening her with _Ripley's Believe It or Not_, she definitely belonged there!

I quickly typed out the text without checking for punctuation or grammar.

**"Need help... This place is worse than I thought Ask Colin Free food involved. See you in hour?"**

I hit send and shut my phone. She may not be able to respond but she would come if she could read it. So, that gave me a fifty-fifty shot of her actually showing up on the door step. I didn't plan on holding my breath.

Forty-five minutes later the door opened and this time there were actually people there. I still hadn't been able to shake the feeling that I wasn't alone in the house. I knew the company would be a welcome distraction and the house would get cleaned to boot. Colin and Stef stood grinning from ear to ear, still in pajamas, with overnight bags in tow and huge smiles on their faces. Apparently Stef had ulterior motives when she agreed to come and help. Ah, well. These were two of my most favorite people in the world. I just had to keep telling myself that this would be fun.

Two hours, seven garbage bags, four beers, and one food run later we were gathered around the old coffee table in the living room eating dinner. "Ground Control to Bella...Come in, Bella." I heard Colin say through my muddled thoughts. I was exhausted. We had only just finished eating after nearly six hours of non-stop cleaning. I felt like I was in a turkey coma only I was full of onion rings instead. I had to find somewhere besides Burger King to eat. That was going to get old. FAST.

I must have been daydreaming. I was sitting in the recliner in the living room staring through the small hallway to the tiny dining room and I was watching a Sunday night dinner from a different era. The men were in different stages of suits, the women were in what could only be described as gowns. I could smell the chicken. I could hear the silver clinking against what I could only assume was china. It couldn't be any later than the nineteen-thirties. I feel like it was even earlier than that. During World War I maybe? I wasn't sure. My thoughts strayed back to Edward. It seemed like a scene from his time. Well, I guess ghosts were possible too. Werewolves and Vampires existed so why not ghosts? Okay, so now I had lost it. I should have been committed years ago and this hallucination was proof positive of it. I was going crazy, but then again I wasn't so sure I didn't like it.

This scene I was seeing play out before me was a dream though. I just hadn't realized that I had fallen asleep. It had to be a dream because the girl with the wavy brown hair kept glancing toward the door and if this wasn't a dream she would have seen me staring. I couldn't believe how real it felt though; the sounds, the smells, all of it were too real. I wanted to get off the chair and join them, but I was afraid that this amazing scene would vanish if I did. They were waiting for someone to come home. From a war? Is that what they were saying? It was hard to catch all the words. The girl with the wavy hair intrigued me. I was staring at her. She looked so familiar; like she was a relation. I was engrossed in the scene when Colin pulled me out of my trance.

It hadn't been a dream after all. I had been wide awake and hallucinating? I was annoyed at him; angry was more like it, because as soon as I looked back at the dining room after glancing at him, it was exactly as it was earlier today. Complete with my book bag and an open box of shoes in the corner. I sighed and tried to join into Colin's and Stef's conversation, pretending I had a clue as to what they were talking about; even though I clearly didn't. I didn't catch what Stef had said, but apparently, it was a question directed at me. I wondered what it was. I really didn't want to endure the teasing that was about to commence when she realized I had no clue what they were asking me.

"Bells...Will you go to the packey? Colin said he'd pay. We'll go to the grocery store and get snacks and to the video store..." she trailed off. Ah, there would be no teasing, not yet, anyway. They wanted liquor and I was 22. Convenient. Well if I was going to break the law, I couldn't do it for two better people. It wasn't as if I didn't drink when I was a senior in high school or a sophomore in college. I laughed to myself. I could count how many times I went to class sober on one hand during my second year at Rhode Island College. I continued to laugh at the fact that I lived on what was referred to as a "dry" campus. I had a fully stocked, albeit well concealed, bar in my dorm room.

"Should we call Casie?" I asked, and I knew the answer immediately. Both of them had looks of horror on their face. Casie would rat them out in a heartbeat. She may be slightly stuck up but she was a Momma's girl through and through. Then I would hear it. If they got caught, I wouldn't see them until they moved out and I knew it. These were two of my most favorite people in the world and so Casie was left out, yet again.

"Of Course not, it was just a passing thought. Just us tonight though? What about Joe and Marisa?" Marisa was Colin's girlfriend of a year and she was a freshman at the University. I LOVED her. Joe, well he was newer. Stef and Joe had only been dating for a few months, and my cousin wasn't one for sharing, so I hadn't formed an opinion about Joe one way or the other. Not yet. But I wanted to; call it what you will but I was still the oldest. I had taken the older sister role on when I moved out here. It had been an obvious fit and it had given me a purpose. I was so used to taking care of my parents that it had just seemed natural. I needed to fill that role somehow, and the relationships I had with Colin and Stef did just that.

"Umm...well...we kind of already invited them and Sean texted me...He's on his way..." Stef got quiet. She wasn't sure if she should have invited everyone over without my permission. Not that she was scared I would be mad. She was just really observant. She realized there had been a reason I hadn't called Sean to help me today. She wasn't sure if I wanted him here. I wasn't sure I wanted him here. This house was bringing my past to me, and I wanted that. Sean didn't have a place in there. I had tried living for other people, and he was a part of that. Moving on for Charlie meant getting a new boyfriend and enjoying my college experience. The more time I spent in this house, however, I realized that it was now time to live for me.

I began pacing back and forth, nervous for the night ahead. My imagination was running away with me and now I was convinced that ghosts were real too. I needed a night off, and it had to be tonight. School and life started up again on Monday, so this was the last chance I would get to hide. I had Biology this spring and I knew the memories would come flooding back. Tonight was a night to put that all aside and get tanked. It was time to be reckless Bella, not the responsible citizen everyone expected me to be. It was time to PARTY!

"Ready for the debauchery?" Stef asked with a wicked gleam in her eyes.

"Cool!" I replied as I plastered a huge smile on my face, hoping it looked genuine. Everyone would be here in a few hours and it was time to perform. At least my acting skills had improved; no one would actually know I was freaking out. This was something I would have never been able to pull off in high school. Back then, I couldn't lie to save my life, even when it depended on it. I shuddered at the memories. I was just glad those wolves had come along when they did. If they hadn't, well let's just say death would have been the best-case scenario. The worst would be a vampire, and facing eternity alone. Nearly a century was bad enough, but _forever_? At that point in my life, I couldn't have pretended to move on. I was lonely, I was reminiscing about things I have been trying to forget for years and I just needed to get drunk. Completely and utterly drunk, the kind of drunk where you have to sleep with one foot on the floor just to keep the room from spinning. Maybe some recreational drug use on my part was needed. That way, if I did say something off color, I could blame it on the beer or the weed. You know something like, "Hey guys, have you met my ghosts?" There was only one way to find out if I could pass that off as normal behavior.

"Make a list? Did the Dark Knight come out yet on DVD? Or we could download something from Netflix?" I said to both Colin and Stef, hoping that I hadn't spaced out for too long.

"We wanted to see Black Sheep or Billy Madison actually," Colin stated. Leave it to Colin, he worshipped Adam Sandler and was still in mourning over Chris Farley. Although, I think he had been seven when Farley died.

The list getting shoved into my face brought me back to the present. "Colin, Everclear? Really? Are you serious? You know I'm not buying that for you." I may condone drinking, but a trip to the ER with alcohol poisoning seemed like a bad idea. Charlie would drag me home by my ears. Not to mention, the wrath I would endure from my aunt and uncle.

"Had to try." He said, shrugging his shoulders.

"What kind of beer do you want?" I asked with just as much indifference.

"Just get me Sam's," he replied.

"Got it. I'm gonna grab the Captain while I'm at the packy. Can you make sure that Stef gets the stuff to make punch? Call me on my cell if they don't have grenadine at Stop and Shop, and I'll get it while I'm there. But really look for it, okay? I don't want to pay the liquor store price if I don't have too."

"Sure...Stef?" Colin shouted up the stairs to her, "Let's go...I'm STARVING!"

"Colin, relax she'll be done in a minute… Give the girl a chance to use the bathroom; can't you go an hour without stuffing your face?" The look on his face told me the answer to that and I went into the dining room to dig through my book bag for my emergency granola bar.

Two minutes later they were in my Ford, headed to the Stop and Shop. Colin wants to check out my truck, and he thought the best way to do so, was to drive it. I couldn't be sure, but since he was my mechanic, I had to trust him. Besides, if he broke the thing, he knew how to fix it. Luckily, I had a mechanic on each coast.

I walked out through the garage, tapping the automatic door opener on my way so that the door came down just before I was completely out. It made me nervous but it was just yet another thing I needed to get used to. Hell, there was a whole houseful of things to get used to. With my grace, it was only a matter of time before that thing closed in on me.

After handing the cashier forty dollars of my hard earned money; I struggled out of the store with the case of beer and the handle of rum in my left hand while I tucked the change in my pocket and searched for the car key with my right. This excursion called for automatic door locks. No such luck with this car. I got the party essentials in the vehicle and miraculously didn't even stumble. Score one for the klutz!

I pulled into the driveway an hour later. I went into the house and wondered how long it would take Colin and Stef to get back. Joe and Marissa would be here in half an hour, Sean too, probably. I briefly debated texting him and telling him that the plans had been cancelled. Then I realized that would just cause more trouble than it was worth. I would have to face them sooner or later. I just wished it was much later.

I walked in cautiously, afraid of what I might find; I knew this place was making me crazy. I was hearing things, smelling things, even seeing things. But more importantly, I was remembering things. It was starting to scare me. I thought I was mentally competent, but you never know. I wondered if anyone in my family had been nuts. I wasn't sure. I had almost lost my mind once before and now I felt like I was having a relapse. Heart racing, palms sweating, I turned the key and waited impatiently while the garage door groaned to life and slowly inched up towards the ceiling. As soon as I was able, I ducked under the door and ran in to the enclosed porch between the garage and the dining room. As I reached to turn the knob on the old glass door, I saw that same dinner scene from earlier, only now I could see all the participants. The tiny room was overflowing with the seven people, all with the same shade of coppery bronze hair. A very familiar shade of bronze hair. Hair that I had only ever seen on one other person. The person that had been the cause of my mental breakdown.

I saw them all clearly. Like they were real and actually sitting there, but that wasn't right, they couldn't be. It was not possible. As I went to open the second door, and wondered to myself why there were two doors to open to enter one room the scene disappeared. The scent of roasted chicken, however, lingered. There was no stove in the house so I didn't even bother to investigate. I knew it was just my imagination again.

I was growing very impatient. The creaks and groans of the house were getting to me. I went to sit in the old recliner and kept stealing glances at the dining room. I kept telling myself it was because I wanted everyone to get back. That it was because I was worried about their safe arrival. Although, I couldn't kid myself into believing that that was true. I kept thinking back on the scene that had unfolded in the dining room, it had almost felt like a movie. It was one that I wanted to watch again. That's what it had felt like, a scene from a period movie. However, it was only the introduction, the opening scene, of what felt like an intense drama. It intrigued me and I wanted to know more. I know that that seems crazy, but that was a good word, because I was crazy. The insane asylum must have a place for me.

My phone beeped and I jumped. It was Colin; he could text and drive. I was impressed. He needed Stef's keys. I opened the door and called out to him. I knew what was coming. I had left them in the car. As I shut the door, I froze. It was the same scene and this time I thought the girl was looking at me. My skin grew cold and clammy. I couldn't move. I wanted to run, maybe even to scream, but I did nothing. She could see me, I was sure of it. I knew it was fear that was rooting me to this place. I didn't know what to do, but I had to do something. She kept staring. Eventually, I could see that the scene was dissolving into a misty fog. Yet she was still there, in that chair. I thought I should speak. Say something. Anything. But I was frozen in fear. I shut my eyes, counted to three, and opened them. It didn't work. She was still there. My heart was racing now. Pounding in my chest. I felt sick. I couldn't breathe. Is this what a panic attack felt like? Or a heart attack? I was having a physical reaction to my insane mind. Welcome to the asylum. The breezeway door opened just then and I saw Stef and Colin freeze. They must have seen what I did. I wasn't going crazy.

"Bells...you okay? Bella? ISABELLA?" Stef's voice trilled to a higher octave. She was freaking out, so apparently, this was just me. I looked briefly at my cousin and then back to the empty chair. "Sorry guys...I guess I was having a daydream, or a day-mare might be a better word for it."

"You sure you're okay Bells?" Colin asked as he pulled the blender from the cupboard.

"Yea, why?" Was I really that obvious?

Stef looked at Colin like they we were staging an intervention. "You're not acting like yourself." Then again, maybe they were.

"Stef, I think this is just a lot to handle you know? I swear it's just the lack of sleep. I'm good. I swear."

With that I got down three shot glasses and poured us all a measure of Captain.

"Salud?" I meant it as a toast, but it came out as more of a question. They both mumbled a Salud in response to my toast, and exchanged another look. I knew that look. They thought I was losing my mind again. I decided to prove them wrong, even if they were so very right and plastered a smile on my face. I hoped my acting skills would be enough to bluff through this night.

It was a good call on Stef's part to buy the Solo cups. The dining room table was small, but it worked. And the punch was a much better substitute for the beer. We should have put a sheet under the table. Thank God the carpet was brown and old. It would have been pink by the time we were done with it. At least I hadn't gotten around to cleaning this room yet. Although in that moment, I decided that it would need to be done by the end of the weekend. I didn't need any more unexpected visitors, especially those of the rodent variety.

It was a fun night. Or it may have been the rum. Whatever it was, it took my mind off my lack of sanity. I felt normal at least for a night. That was all I ever asked for anymore.

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**Again I'll see you all in a week and 2 days! In the meantime go check out "Open" by Sammie Lynn's Mom!**


	4. Blast from the Past

**Chapter 4: Blast from the Past**

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**The girls at PTB rock. You should all send them cupcakes.**

**I only own a few things, none of them are twilight related. I own a cone of shame for my dog, and a truck, and if I owned twilight my dog wouldn't need a cone of shame.**

**Sorry for the delay. My daughter had emergency surgery this morning and yesterday was spent in testing.**

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My head was still pounding from the debauchery of the weekend. At least my stomach had finally stopped churning, that was a small consolation. I had spent the better part of Sunday and most of today praying to the porcelain God. Unfortunately, the hangover from hell had already caused me to miss my first three classes, and it was only the first day. I decided not to go for four, and so I began the tortuous drive to my night class.

I rushed into creative writing three minutes late. The room was a converted closet in the library, and I had managed to get extremely lost in the labyrinth of rooms on the fourth floor. To make matters worse, twenty-one freshmen stared at me as I tripped my way through the door. "Smooth, Swan" I thought to myself as I took the last available seat. Front and center. Perfect.

"Where was I?" the professor continued, glaring at me. Apparently this guy was one for punctuality. Way to make a first impression. I felt my face burn and knew my cheeks were giving me away.

"Ah, yes. Attendance is mandatory, and it will be taken promptly at 7pm., if you are not here by then, you will be marked absent. I will not disrupt my lecture for inconsiderate students." He was staring me down at this point. Weren't English professors supposed to be laid back? Did this guy miss the memo?

"As you can see by the syllabus on your desk, there is an assignment due every Monday. We will take these next fifteen weeks to enhance your writing skills, and by the end, you will have reviewed fourteen of your peers' work, written fourteen different pieces, and discussed as a group fourteen different assignments from your classmates that I deem worthy of dissecting. I do not give A's easily, however, those pieces that the class studies will automatically receive that grade."

I was secretly hoping that at least fourteen other people in this class were better writers than I was. I didn't care about the grade and definitely did not want the attention. I knew this class was going to be bad; it's why I had waited so long to take it. My imagination had left me years ago; I hadn't even picked up a novel since I left Forks. This would be the hardest class of my college career, I had known that. I just hadn't counted on a hard-ass for a professor to boot.

I forced myself to pay attention as the professor began to take roll. I knew that Abby had said she was taking this class, but she had a habit of dropping classes before they began. We had met at orientation, yet she was still a sophomore while I would walk in May. I hadn't seen her since fall semester and, in typical Abby fashion, she had lost her phone, so I knew the only way to find her was to pay attention.

"Anderson, Eric?" A goofy kid with glasses nodded. Must be the name, I mused to myself. Every Eric I had ever encountered looked like an AV guy.

"Brown, Erin" the professor continued. A model-like brunette timidly raised her hand. Still no sign of Abby, but he hadn't reached the D's yet. I had to focus so I didn't miss him calling Deluca.

"Cullen, Alice." Wait? What? Was that possible? Could Edward's sister and my former best friend be in class with me?

"Cullen, Alice." The professor stated again.

Shock overtook my body. Was this even possible? It was a night class, but this was Rhode Island, not Forks. True, it was a part of New England, a region known for its unpredictable weather, but it had sun-filled days. Lots of sun-filled days. Vampires couldn't come out in the sun. Ever. Proof again that this was just a different girl with the same name. After all, I reasoned, Cullen wasn't such an unusual name. It could have been a coincidence or a shared name, but that would require some luck on my part. It was at the same moment that I determined this to be a bizarre coincidence that my world came crashing down around me.

"Here" a voice that sounded so musical and all too familiar finally answered. Luck, apparently, was not my friend today. With that one word my world crumbled. My palms moistened, my stomach clenched, and my heart took off. I had to escape the confines of that room and fast. I knew from experience I had about five minutes before I passed out. Not the type of first day I wanted. So I did what I had become an expert at since the last time I saw any of the Cullens. I ran.

Forty-five minutes later, I emerged from the Ladies room much calmer than I had expected. I had made my decision and had felt immensely better in the few minutes since. It was simple really; I would switch into another class. Although, this would just make my financial struggles that much worse, and my boss would not be happy either. He had been counting on me not having any classes on Tuesday and Thursday. So much for the full time hours I had been promised. Really, there was nothing I could do about it. It had taken me this long to get my life back together. I wasn't going to take a step back now. This was a decent-sized campus; hell, I barely saw any of my friends while I was here. I usually only saw them if we had class together, and the English department was one of the largest on campus, so that too was rare. I could avoid one person for three months. This would be easy.

I turned the corner to exit the building and saw her staring at me. I shook my head. If she had been a normal person, this would have been weird. As it was, I jumped at the sight of her. I'd nearly forgotten about the enhanced senses and paranormal abilities.

A war erupted in my mind between turning and walking away, and confronting my former best friend. I could leave, but I knew I wouldn't get far. If she was anything like I'd remembered, she wouldn't give up. Facing her now would be easier in the long run, like pulling off the Band-Aid quickly, although, I was one to let them fall off on their own.

So, I decided to face my tormenter and brace myself for what she had to say.

"What do you want, Alice?"

"Oh, Bella!" Alice said as she ensnared me in a tight hug. The marble skin and icy embrace alone was enough to make me cringe. The fact that she was crushing me came in a close second.

"Alice….I can't….can't…" I said between gasping for air. I would be black and blue by morning.

"Oh, sorry. It's been a while since….well…it's been a while…"

That's when I lost it. The composure I thought I had mustered disappeared. She shouldn't be here. I had finally put the pieces of my life back together. I had finally managed to start dating again only last year. My life may have been just a shell of what it had once been, but it was mine. The anger boiled over, and I threw my temper into what I said next. I was determined to get it out. I'd let her say her piece once I was done and then avoid her for the rest of the semester, should she choose to stay. It wouldn't be the first time she had run from me. I was staying. I couldn't really afford the change in hours,and I had promised myself that I wouldn't run from my life any more. Not for anyone, especially not for a Cullen. So much for making a decision and sticking with it, that was a first for me and hopefully a last.

I turned my gaze into her topaz eyes, I was angry, my blood was boiling, and the Cullens were not going to toy with me anymore. Inhaling a deep breath, I began my tirade.

"Again, what do you want Alice? Because I really don't have time for you, or your family's sick games. What,did you get bored? Like your brother, thought you could search me out and use me as a distraction?" I made air quotes with my hands, hopefully getting the point across that this was what Edward had said to me.

"Needed a change for a few months? Thought you could go seek out the family pet? You left me. ALL OF YOU left me! That was five years ago, Alice! It has taken me nearly that long just to piece my life together. I'm almost there. I was left devastated. I finally just began to move on, accepting the fact that the Cullen's are a bunch of liars that I fell in love with. I finally accepted the fact that I would never see any of you again. I loved all of you; to be honest, a part of me still does. I thought that you left me to protect me, and I could deal with that. But you being here? It proves that I really was naïve. You used me. You left me. And you waltz back into my life like this? My life is not a game, Alice, and I am not your toy!"

I was shaking now. I was so hurt, but I still loved her. I truly had thought they left for my own good. I had been so stupid, everything Edward had said was true. This had just confirmed it. It was then I realized that Alice wasn't talking, so I guess I had to do something to speed this up.

"Alice, say whatever it is you need to say and then leave. I'll see you in class on Monday and I expect you to respect me enough to keep your distance. Come May, I never want to see you again." I had begun to calm down. I was ready to hear her out and be done with this.

"Bella," she began softly, almost too softly for me to hear. "Bella, I'm sorry, I didn't know-"

I cut her off. "Really? The all-knowing psychic Alice didn't know? Didn't know what? That I was his distraction? That he never loved me? That my life is nothing like it once was? Or that I was here? Because really Alice, 'I didn't know' is one sorry and pathetic excuse coming from you. "

I stopped then; judging by the confused look on her face, she really didn't know. It hit me then; she didn't know. She didn't know because she didn't look. My cheeks began to blaze red. She truly didn't care about me. It was time to leave. I needed my bed and a box of Kleenex.

"Bella, please let me explain," she begged. Her acting skills were good. She looked heartbroken.

"Alice, there's no need. I jumped to conclusions." I was so embarrassed, and I knew my face was giving me away. "Go about your life, and leave me be. Please." I turned and began the walk to my truck.

She was there, fifteen minutes later, when I went to unlock the beast. Of course she was there. This was probably another game to her.

"Bella?" She sounded so broken. Why was she doing this? This was not part of the plan. This was just cruel. I missed her, but if I let her in, she would just leave again. I didn't know if I would come back from it this time. I was pretty sure I wouldn't.

"Alice, please, I can't do this again. You'll leave and I'll be broken more than I already am. "

"I won't leave." She was pleading, and I was losing my strength. "Can't we just talk?"

"Fine. Get in. You can talk while I drive home. Then you need to leave. Agreed?" My tone was acidic. It had to be. This was harder than I thought.

Turning off campus and all through the short drive to the highway, Alice remained quiet. I couldn't be sure why. She was running out of time. Her mouth kept opening and shutting, like she was going to say something but then would change her mind. Apparently she was at a loss for words. I never thought I would see that day. Then again, I never thought I would see her again.

Finally, about ten minutes from home, I realized that I would have to say something. I racked my brain for something to say and came up with only one word. "Why?" I whispered, knowing full well she could hear me.

"All the whys?" Alice asked. She already knew the answer.

"Yes, Alice. All the whys."

And so she began. She started five years ago, the day she left with Jasper. It had been Edward who had asked them all to leave and asked her not to look. It had been Edward who had ripped her family apart. Emmett and Rosalie had moved to England with Esme and Carlisle. Last time Alice had heard from Edward, he was somewhere in South America, but that had been a few years ago. Alice and Jasper had come to Rhode Island just this year for a change of scenery. According to Alice, this was going to be the most sunless year the state had seen in over a century. Great.

The truck was cooling rapidly. Her explanation had been well over a half hour and parked the truck in the driveway a while ago. I was hearing her out but I was unsure how I was going to be when she left.

Not that it mattered. Not that I understood any of this. I didn't understand why she left or why she never looked for me. She was supposed to be my best friend, and she left in the first place. I just didn't get it, and I told her as much.

"Bella, when we left we thought we were doing the right thing. It broke Edward's heart. He still loves you. We all do. But my vision of you has never changed. And since we have eternity, I knew it was only a matter of time."

I was stuck on only one part of her explanation. "You have eternity, Alice. You all do." My meaning was clear as was her reaction.

"I thought by letting this play out it would make us all stronger. You will be one of us some day, whether you believe it or not, in every sense of the word."

My eyes widened in disbelief. It just didn't make sense that she would say that. Nothing in my life was putting me on a path to immortality. Mental hospital, yes, but not a part of the Cullen household. The conviction of her words was outstanding. Alice believed it to be true, and it as the old Cullen saying goes, no one ever bet against Alice. Although, there was always a first for everything, even Alice being wrong.

"It still happens, Bella. No matter what I can or can't see, I still see you as one of us and with Edward. You will be a Cullen one day, the only thing that changes is the when not the if."

It finally began to sink in. "But how? Who will change me? Carlisle? Why?"

"No, Bella." Alice replied, so softly I had to strain to hear her. "Not Carlisle. Edward."

"But Alice, he doesn't want me; I was just a temporary thing."

It was then I felt the cold air as my door opened without me turning the handle. I looked to see who it was and realized that the subject of my nightmares and my dreams was standing just outside my truck. I could feel my heart start to race and my face flush. He was really here. I was speechless, confused, and on the verge of tears. As I was ready to completely lose it, he finally spoke.

"That's not true."

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**And yea, see you next Thursday!**


	5. Skeleton in the Closet

**Chapter 5: Skeleton in the closet**

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**So this is the chapter where I earn my rating. But not for lemons!**

**I own nothing. Seriously. The house owns me at this point.**

**This is for PhoenixLoveStory who told me I couldn't leave it there. Be careful what you wish for!**

**And now on with the train wreck. (I'm going for the slow and painful.**

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"Wait? What? But you said? How?" I was at a loss for words. How was he here? Why was he here? I must have been dreaming. First, Alice showed up in my writing class, and now Edward was in my driveway? This was some sort of dream, or maybe a hallucination. Either way, I must have been tripping on some pretty good drugs. Funny, though, I didn't remember smoking anything since Saturday night, and I hadn't eaten any funny tasting foods either. Maybe all my illicit drug use in the past five years had finally caught up to me.

I guess drugs really were bad. I knew they were "reckless." That was their appeal. Edward had made me promise to be safe and yet he himself had broken so many promises. I felt it was only fair that I do the same. I knew he would hate that I was smoking pot and eating the occasional mushroom. That was part of the draw. Every time I took a hit, I could almost hear him yelling at me. It was the only way I knew to keep him close to me in the beginning, every time I broke that promise not to do anything reckless, it was like I could hear him. Now the drugs had become a part of who I was, not that I was an addict. I felt like they were a natural part of college. In fact, there were months when I didn't go near anything like that. I didn't actively seek them out, never actually paid for them, but if they were offered, I never refused. I guess I was rationalizing, but hey, they kept the men in the white coats away.

Sean was a different story. Sean and pot went hand in hand. I guess he was what people referred to as a "stoner". With Sean, weed was a necessity. He wasn't always high, but when he wasn't, his anger got the better of him, a lot. The weed calmed him down. Pot was how Sean and I had met, funnily enough. Last year, Stef had dragged me to yet another frat party down at URI, and I was bored. I went outside to get away from the grabby pledges, and Sean was there smoking a joint, blissfully unaware of the party raging in his house. That night was magical for me; it was the first time, in years, that I didn't hear Edward's voice when I did something stupid. I didn't feel guilty about breaking any of the promises that I had made him the day he left me. It was the first time in years where I was able to go more than a few minutes without thinking of him. I actually went all night without even a whisper of his memory. Sean was able to make me forget, and being with him was so easy. I guess he was what you would call the rebound guy, although it took me four years to have one of those. It wasn't until recently that the shine wore off of Sean, and I had begun to see some of his character flaws.

I was lost in my thoughts, back to that first night with Sean, back to the first time I allowed myself to move on. It was such an amazingly simple time. It was early April, and we had had an unseasonably warm day. It had reached the mid eighties, and the heat wasn't supposed to let up until the next week. We just sat and stared out at the ocean watching as the sky turned from blue to orange, not really talking, just enjoying each others company. As the sun set, it began to cool off, but before I could so much as shiver, Sean had his sweatshirt wrapped around me and his fingers laced into mine. I had never given it back, and it had become an ongoing "fight" for us. One neither of us really wanted to win. My mind drifted to our first kiss. His breath laced with peppermint and so warm against my mouth, it was nothing like the white hot fire I had once felt, but it was close. My stomach did flips for Sean; my body definitely reacted to him almost as it had to Edward. Edward. I almost forgot that they were still here; I had been so wrapped up in my daydream. I forced myself back to the present, back to Edward and Alice.

"This cannot be happening right now," I said mostly to myself. The insanity was trickling in, seeping into all of me. I couldn't let myself believe him. I felt my "flight or fight" response kick in. I had to get in the house, and they had to leave. I needed time to process all of this. What if what Alice had said was true? And Edward? My head was spinning, I was an emotional wreck, and I needed to break down in peace.

"I need to get in. I need you both to leave. We'll finish this in the morning?" I wasn't sure if they would agree to this, but I had to try. Besides, it would be a good test to see if what they were saying to me really was true. If they came back, it would be a step in the right direction. I went to leave the truck, but Edward was still there, blocking my exit. "Edward, please. I have a lot to do and it's late." I still hadn't met the gaze I could feel burning into me.

I turned towards the garage door, fumbling for my keys with shaking hands, when I felt stone arms around my waist and that white hot electricity course through me. My body reacted before my mind did, and I found myself entwined in Edward's embrace. Just as I was reaching up to kiss him, I heard a car door slam and break me from the magic. It was at that moment that I saw the familiar lines of Sean's Maxima. Shit. This was going to be problematic.

"Bella, what the hell? Who the fuck is that? Is this why you haven't answered any of my calls?"

The volume increased after he asked each question. Sean stood before me accusing me of cheating on him. More than ever I wanted to run and hide. I hadn't answered his calls because I had never turned my phone ringer on from the weekend. Totally innocent. Not so believable. It didn't help that Edward hadn't released me from his embrace. In fact, he had shifted me slightly behind him, like Sean was a threat. My past and my present were staring each other down, and it was becoming dangerous quickly.

"Sean, go in," I said as I handed over the key to the garage door. "I'll be there in a minute to explain, to explain it all." He gave Edward an icy stare before turning the key in the lock to start the door. I couldn't help wondering what thoughts he was subjecting Edward too. Edward was staring at Sean with a look I had only ever seen him give James. I decided that I didn't want to know what either of them was thinking. Sean didn't wait for the garage door to completely lift up before ducking underneath and bolting into the house. It didn't take a mind reader or a psychic to figure out that he was pissed. My stomach sank and my palms moistened, the conversation ahead of me was not going to be fun. I had a feeling that I may just have to give that sweatshirt back, and I wasn't sure if I was ready to do that just yet.

"Who was that?" Edward asked in a nasty tone while he stared daggers at the garage door.

"Who do you think?" I matched his inflection. "That is Sean, my very angry boyfriend. Hopefully, still my boyfriend." Edward's face fell, but at that point he wasn't my main concern. "Like I said, we will continue this tomorrow. Right now I need to get in there and explain things to him. So, please, leave." I turned into the garage and pressed the button to close the door. I slowly made my way into the house to face the inevitable argument that was about to ensue.

When I got into the living room, Sean was pacing and his face was red. Great. This was going to be bad. The last time I saw him like this I had to spend the next eight hours arranging his bail, and the next six months after those making court appearances with him. And that was just a bar room brawl with a guy who got too grabby with me. This? This was worse. Much worse. This time I was the only one here to be on the receiving end of his anger. Not that he had ever so much as raised his hand to me, but I also had never done something to provoke it. I had seen him in rages, and they were not pretty. Most of his furniture in his apartment was from Wal-Mart because he broke it so often. His anger was always there simmering just under the surface. Sean always had managed to control it though, at least around me, except when he was drinking. From what I had heard from his roommate, the drinking was becoming a regular habit.

It was at that moment, as that thought had crossed my mind, that I noticed the now empty vodka bottle. How he managed to drink a fifth of Grey Goose in the short time it took me to say my goodbyes was beyond me. This talk had to happen quickly, or there was going to be trouble.

"Sean, listen, what you saw was nothing. It was nothing." I started to explain as I saw his face cloud over.

"Don't tell me that was nothing, Bella. I saw the two of you. I saw you in his arms. Tell me, how long have you been fucking him? Is that why you wanted to live alone? Why I have been invited here only once and by Stef no less? Oh God, does she know? Are you all playing me for a fool? Shit, Bella! Now you're making me sound like a girl!"

The empty vodka bottle was torturing me, and I was regretting finishing off the handle of Captain on Saturday. At this point, I needed a drink. I knew it would be a matter of minutes before he was truly and utterly drunk. I didn't know if he would become a raging lunatic in that time or if he would listen. And, did he really think I was that easy? My blood pressure was rising, and I could feel the warmth rushing to my face. I needed to calm down and get this out before we had World War Three on our hands. I began to tread carefully into dangerous waters.

"Sean, do you want to hear what that was all about or what? Because if you can sit there and hear me out, and hear some things I never wanted to ever tell you, then we'll talk. Can you handle that?"

"Who were they?" The venom in his voice scared me. The only other time I had been this scared was back in my old ballet studio in Phoenix. That time the threat had been a vampire, and I was saved by the one that I loved. This was a human, this was my boyfriend. He looked like he was ready to hit someone, and I was the only person in the room. I couldn't believe that the Police Chief's daughter was about to become a statistic.

I answered his question hoping to buy myself some time and began my explanation into the world of the Cullens, leaving out some of the major details, like the whole vampire thing and especially the mind reading. He still had to pay for the sex comment. If he and Edward were ever in the same room again, and Sean had some impure thoughts of me in front of Edward, well Edward had that coming to him.

"So, is there anything else?" C'mon Sean, just ask me what you are dying to know, I thought to myself. Exactly when did I lose my virtue? You never did ask how many guys I slept with. I never did tell you it was exactly two, you being one of them. Jacob was a one time mistake. I was a little too grateful and too excited for him fixing my truck and assuring me it would make the cross country trip. Besides, I never planned on seeing him again, and I had only planned on kissing him, but one thing had led to another. It was awkward and messy and effectively ended our friendship. I had seen Jacob exactly three times since that day and had only spoken to him twice. Seeing him brought back uncomfortable memories of a ruined friendship.

I braced myself for the hardest question I would have to answer. Although it was not the question I was prepared for. "Are you in love with him?" he asked. I was floored. Okay, not what I was expecting. At all. So Sean was not in a good state of mind and this was going to hurt him. I debated on whether to tell him the truth or not. 'The truth will set you free.' Whoever said that wasn't worried about what would happen to them next. And definitely didn't have an angry drunk for a boyfriend at the moment.

I decided to lie. It was all I could do. I had seen Sean's temper and knew it would only get worse if the truth came out. He would find out but just not now. This house wasn't exactly mine, and most of the stuff in it belonged to other people. How would I ever be able to pay for his temper? I knew he needed to hear the truth, but now was not the time to tell him.

The truth was that I had always been in love with Edward. That would never change. I didn't feel the same way about Sean. I loved him, I was attracted to him, but I was in love with someone else. Life had just somehow gotten in the way of that. In my head, I knew that Edward and I would never be together again. No matter what he said, I had a hard time believing he was lying that fateful day in the woods. He was my first love, and it would take me a long time to move past that. I had to believe that I would move on, but Sean was not the person that was going to allow me to find that passion again.

"Sean, I love you. Edward was my past. I never thought I would see him again. I didn't plan on Alice being in my class. I never brought my relationship with Edward up because I honestly never felt the need. So, are we done here? Because I've had a really long, hard day and I need to sleep."

I went to head towards the stairs and was suddenly pulled back into the living room. Sean turned me around to face him. He looked livid, and I was terrified. What the hell had I done? Nothing, that's what, absolutely nothing. I hadn't broken his heart. I hadn't admitted my true feelings, and I had managed to only sort of lie. I had done nothing wrong. So what was with him?

"You never answered my question. " He was gripping my wrists so tightly they were going to bruise if I didn't do something fast. I tried to free myself from his grip, but that only seemed to make him angrier. This was not my "Sean". I had never seen him like this before. He needed to calm down. As confused as I was, I had to find a way to free myself from his grip. I thought about kissing him, but realized that may only make things worse.

"You need to answer me." His voice was low and menacing. I was suddenly questioning the last year of my life. How had I not seen this before? Colin had never liked Sean; I now realize what a good judge of character Colin was.

His grip got tighter as I struggled against him. He had me against the wall. The corner of the mantel was poking into my shoulder blade. I thought of going for the fire poker but realized that if I managed to not hurt myself, he would probably use it on me with the way he was acting. He continued ordering me to answer his question. His grip had finally relaxed and with that so had my tension. That was until my phone started ringing, the song seemed to set him off. Although, how Steve Miller Band's 'The Joker' could do that was beyond me.

"You will answer me. Now." Again he said that in a low, cold voice. I hope he never drank around me again. If I were to ever let him near me again that is. My hands were starting to throb from the pressure Sean had on my wrists.

"Please." I felt the tears of pain escaping my eyes. I couldn't hold it back anymore, I had no idea how this would end, but I knew it wouldn't be good for me. "Please, you're hurting me," I managed to squeak out before I felt my hands being freed. I was pushed down into the couch and shut my eyes. Whatever was coming next I just didn't want to know. This was not my Sean, this was the vodka talking, and I never wanted to see him this way. If I kept my eyes shut I could think of him as sober Sean and maybe with time we would forget about this night. That is if I survived this night, which I was suddenly not so sure I would.

It was then that I heard the shuffling of feet and a door slam. Then, I heard Sean screaming from the basement. What the hell? I let all the tears I had been holding in flow freely. I was terrified. Who had gotten in and what was next?

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**So yea, I warned you! Reviewers get a teaser of the next chapter. Lurkers, well, I'll see you all next Thursday. Y'all got this early because my daughter had surgery and I am up playing nurse. **


	6. The Long Road Home

**Chapter 6: The Long Road Home**

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**So here you go, another delve into my crazy mind. For those of you that are concerned. Edward has a LOT of ground to cover before Bella let's him back in.**

**I own nothing. Although, I wouldn't mind stealing an Emmett.**

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I sat frozen on the couch for a few minutes trying to figure out what had just happened. Was Edward still here? If he was, he had probably heard that entire conversation. Add one more thing to the list of topics to cover. Wonderful.

As I sat up I realized that I was alone. It had been several moments since Sean started screaming from the basement. Edward would have been back in here already to check on me. He may be a lot of this but above all he was a gentleman. A gentleman would come back to check on a lady in distress, I was sure of that fact. Since I was sure Edward had left, I was more confused than ever before. Exactly who had put Sean in the basement?

That was a mystery I had to figure out. I began exploring the house and seeing things that couldn't be there. The couch was the same but the upright chair now had a paisley print and more wood to it than I had remembered. The mirror above the fireplace had a hurricane lantern to the left of it and my pictures that had been on the mantel were no where in sight. In there place were a strange silver plate and a small crystal vase. It was then I realized that I must have hit my head. Maybe I was unconscious and dreaming. Either was plausible. I was leaning toward the hitting my head explanation. Besides, wasn't this the one thing you always yelled at the ditz in the horror movie for? Stop investigating the house, idiot, run out the front door! I couldn't. Call it my lack of self preservation, but I had to figure out what was going on here. The only way to do that was to keep looking for my hero. The one that had locked Sean in the basement.

So I continued to search. I saw a tuxedo jacket in my bedroom, one that was about a hundred years out-of-date, and an antique comb sitting on the sink in the bathroom. I made my way back down the stairs, through the dining room and headed toward the kitchen, As I walked in though, that was when I finally froze in shock. I was too far gone in my hallucination to do anything reasonable. You know, like going to a doctor or calling the police.

The scene unfolding before me was unreal. That doctor suddenly seemed like a necessity. To my left, where the stove had been- the one that we had removed last weekend- was now an old fashioned giant oven being stoked by a woman with auburn hair and a high-necked dress and dark frilly apron. To my right, in place of the refrigerator, was a wooden ice box straight out of _Anne of Green Gables_. The Formica countertops in front of me had been replaced with what looked like butcher block and were littered with metal gadgets, which I had only ever seen in museums. They were things I had no use for and no clue as to what their purpose was, things I would never in my lifetime use.

Sean was now pounding on the basement door. Somehow he had been locked down there. A quick glance at the handle revealed a skeleton key that I didn't know existed holding the door in place. It was then that I noticed the same man from this past weekend sitting in a chair opposite the door, staring it down. His look held such malice that I was instantly terrified. My worst nightmare had come to fruition, and I wasn't sure if this man was friend or foe.

"Did you do that?" I asked him pointing at the door. He nodded at me, smiled sheepishly, and then went back to staring at the old white door. At least I was on his good side.

I was right in my assumption that Edward had not been my hero after all. Up until that moment, part of my mind had just continue to assume that it had been him. I was so confused that I hadn't stop to consider that hiding from me, from anyone, really, was not Edward's style. Instead of him it had been this strange ghost sitting before me. My heart sank a little and I began to tear up. As the moisture pooled in my eyes, I realized that I had never answered Sean's question. Somehow, "I still love Edward Cullen," just wasn't an adequate answer. The truth was that I was deeply, madly, and obsessively in love with Edward. I was devastated that Edward had not been the one to save me. Although I was grateful to this kind spirit, I realized I wanted my vampire back. I was irrational, and I knew it, but sometimes you just can't control how you feel. We were over, I would never forget that cold night in the woods. The night where he told me I was his distraction, and we were through, but sometimes your heart wants what your head knows you don't need. My head was swimming in so many different thoughts, with the way my night had went, well it wasn't really surprising that I was flying off the deep end of normal straight into a pool of crazy.

To top off that realization, I had some issues to deal with and no one to talk to about them. I began to form a mental list. There was the abusive boyfriend locked in the basement by what I was now convinced was a ghost. That led my mind to the fact that the house I was living in was haunted. I couldn't deny that, not after what had just transpired. Add to that my ex-boyfriend's psychic sister who wanted me back in her life. And the ex-boyfriend himself, who wasn't being clear about what he wanted, but who was also most definitely back. Suddenly the mental hospital seemed like a wonderful and much needed vacation.

I debated on just seeing a counselor and letting them lock me up. That lasted about half a second. With my luck, I would tell someone and they would actually believe me. Not a wise plan. Edward had told me once of the importance of keeping his secret. No matter how he felt about me, that trust was something I could never betray. Plus he told me the price for my knowledge would be my death, and I had become rather fond of breathing, so telling the world that Vampires existed seemed like a bad idea all around.

As I stood there lost in my thoughts, I had forgotten about how close I stood to the basement. The door handle began to turn and my heart began to race. I looked over at my ghost and the terror was apparent on his face. It was obvious to both of us that if I didn't leave soon I could be joining him in the spirit world. I grabbed my truck keys and my beat up brown leather purse and flew through the house and out the front door. I didn't want to wait for the garage door to lift, those were extra seconds I just didn't have. I crashed into my truck in the driveway but recovered quickly, grateful that was my only mishap. I grabbed the frame of the truck and jumped into the driver's seat and started the engine praying that it would warm up quickly. I was violently shaking now, though whether it was from the cold or the fear, I wasn't sure.

I turned out of the driveway and began pushing my truck's internal speed limit. I began tapping on the heater, willing the tuck to warm up. I was frozen. In my haste to leave I had left my coat in the living room. My jeans and fleece vest were not ideal for January in New England. I was rethinking my fascination with these vests. They really had never been in style, and now I was suffering for my lack of fashion sense. What I wouldn't give right now for some thermals and a thick wool sweater. As I suffered through the drive, my truck blowing lukewarm air on me, it began to snow.

I hadn't paid any attention to the forecast all week but it was definitely cold enough for it to stick. It was time to get off the back roads and hit the highway. I was still alive and planned on staying that way for quite some time. That also meant not going home for at least three more hours.

I needed to give Sean time to sober up and calm down. It was still relatively early, which surprised me I felt like a lifetime had passed since I rode with Alice, it hadn't, but it was still too late to go to my aunt and uncle's. If I went there now they would know something was wrong. Aunt Joyce would call her brother and I would be forced to move back in with them or start the third world war to stay in my freakishly haunted house. Not that I was sure that was a good idea. But where else could I go?

I was so lost in thought that I hadn't noticed that the snow was beginning to stick. I should have probably turned the radio on to catch the weather but settled instead for slowing down and driving in silence. I still had no clue as to where to pass the time but thought that the mall may be as good a place as any. It took twenty minutes longer than it should have to reach the parking lot. I guess by then there was at least three inches on the ground. It must have been a squall or something. Three inches in an hour was just way too much snow. I surveyed the parking lot and tried to will myself to stop. I was not in the mood, nor did I really have any money to shop. Not that I was ever in the mood to shop. I caught the "Now Playing" sign out of the corner of my eye and realized a movie would be a great way to kill some time. It was almost 10:00 pm anyway and the mall would be closing soon. That made my decision for me. I trudged through the snow and made my way into the lobby. I checked the time screens to see what movie was playing next, not really caring about the subject matter. The next movie started at 10:15. Perfect. I didn't even remember the title, but ten minutes later I was settled into a nearly deserted theater with my popcorn and my soda and a wandering mind.

As the previews played I went over the consequences of tonight. Sean's jealousy and temper had confirmed for me that we were through. But how to end things with him and remain in one piece? How bad would it get? And what was I going to do with the ghost? Or ghosts? Obviously they could manipulate things and people. Was I truly safe with them there? I thought so but then again I thought that I knew Sean. As for Edward and Alice, I would deal with the two of them tomorrow. I had enough on my mind tonight.

By the end of the movie I had concluded that the only thing I could do was break up with Sean when I got back to the house and pray that he took it well. Provided, of course, that he was sober when I got back. That was the only decision I had really come to. The ghosts would take some research, and the Cullen's were off the list for tonight. So I had just spent twenty bucks to figure out that I needed to dump my boyfriend. Something that I had already known. That was twenty more dollars than I could afford to spend and a huge waste of my hard earned money.

I left the theater feeling better about my decision but worse about the weather. There was at least a half-foot more of snow on the ground and it was still coming down hard. My stomach sank at the realization that I had a long dangerous drive ahead. I had been reckless again, even though I was trying to save my life. I took a few deep breaths and came up with a plan. Sometimes being the daughter of a police chief was a blessing. Charlie's words rang through my head.

"_Bella, whenever you find yourself in a bad spot, pretend it's someone else. What would you tell them to do? Take that advice, and get the hell out of dodge. Trust your gut, kiddo, you have a good head on your shoulders, you need to use it."_

At least I knew how to put snow chains on my tires. I definitely needed them now. It didn't look like the plows had been out yet. I made my way to my truck and started it up, cranking up the heat to full force. I might freeze putting the chains on but I knew that if I could just jump into the cab and warm up between each tire I would be okay. I made my way to the bed of the truck intently focused on the task at hand. I cursed loudly at the snow and my stupidity as I realized that I would have to dig through it to get to my chains. Reaching in I noticed that the snow where the crate had been was disturbed.

"What the hell?" I shouted. This was going to be the end to my night? Did someone really steal the chains to my decrepit old Ford? Seriously?

"Alice said you would react like that." I jumped at his voice. My heart rate increased and I felt like I was seventeen again.

"Why are you here? I told you I'd talk to you tomorrow?" I meant to sound confident and all of my twenty three years, and instead sounded like the insecure high school student I was when I had first met Edward.

"It is tomorrow," he answered.

I pulled my cell phone out of my purse and looked at the time, 12:16 am. So it was. Leave it to Edward to find a technicality to ensure he never broke the rules.

"Very funny, Edward," he gave me my favorite crooked smile, and I suddenly wasn't so cold.

I looked at my tires and realized that he had already put the chains on for me. I may have been irritated that he wasn't giving the space I so desperately needed but at least now I wouldn't get frostbite.

"Thank you for putting the chains on. I definitely wasn't looking forward to that." I had no clue what to do next or why he was here for that matter. Did he really follow me to just put my chains on? I doubted that he wanted to have a heart-to-heart at midnight on a Monday. He was definitely up to something, and I probably wouldn't like it. I needed to ask him what he wanted. He needed to answer the question directly. Which meant that I needed to phrase it so that he would have to give me a straight answer.

"Edward, it's incredibly late, and I promised to talk to you in the morning. Why are you here? And what do you want?"

I hoped these questions were direct enough. I needed answers from him, especially now that my world had been turned so thoroughly around.

"Alice can see you again, at least for the most part. Even if she couldn't see you, we could hear the end of situation between you and Sean from where we were."

"That only answers one question. So Alice knew where to find me. That doesn't answer why you came out here or what you want for that matter." He was going to answer me. I needed answers tonight. Especially, tonight. I was slowly losing my grip on reality and needed all the truths I could get my hands on.

"I'm here because you need me to drive you home. That and I need to make sure you are safe when we get there. For some reason, Alice can't see you when you are in certain parts of your house."

"I can drive myself home and I'm fine. Thank you for your concern." I spat out at him. I was not seventeen anymore. I could handle myself- at least for the most part. What I could and couldn't handle was not his concern, not anymore.

"Bella, if you haven't noticed, you drove out into a blizzard, and if I don't drive you home you're going to flip this truck on I-295. As for being fine, just take a look at your wrists. The person who did that to you is still waiting for you to get back. Let's just say he's not waiting to kiss and make up." His expression became pained and there was a menacing edge to his voice. His eyes kept shifting from my wrists to my face.

I finally decided to look at my arms. Sure enough, I had angry red marks covering my wrists. They matched my fleece and by tomorrow I was sure they would be they would be the same navy color of my shirt. It was then that I began to shake uncontrollably. It was a combination of both the physical and emotional trauma I had suffered tonight, and the snow was not helping to ease the tremors.

Edward slipped out of his gray pea coat and put it around me. His scent enveloped me, and for one brief moment I was lost in my own world. I missed it. I missed all of it. He took advantage of my daydream to guide me to the passenger side of my truck. Trudging through the knee deep snow drift to climb into the cab, I realized that I couldn't argue. I would never be able to navigate myself safely home. Besides, even if I did argue, I would just draw attention to the man in front of me, out in a blizzard, wearing only a t-shirt and jeans.

"Well that was easier than I envisioned," he stated as he put the truck in gear and began slowly making his way out of the parking lot.

"Don't you mean Alice envisioned?" I grumbled. I may have conceded to this but that didn't mean I had to like it. "Besides the only reason I'm letting you drive is because it's snowing out and with my luck I would crash… So you really came out here just to bring me home?"

"Well that and also I need to keep you safe." He replied.

"I can handle Sean. He's sober by now, or close to it." Not to mention my friendly and protective ghost would be there if I couldn't handle him.

"Alice already took care of Sean. And he was definitely still drunk. He also now has a broken hand to add to the massive hangover I'm sure will greet him in the morning."

"Edward, what are you talking about? What the fuck did you two do?" I was now growing extremely angry. What kind of vigilante was he? What Sean had done was between us, Edward had no right to intervene.

"Before you start, Sean broke his own hand. He attacked Alice when she went to get him from the basement. Although how you were able to get him into the basement is beyond me. Alice is taking him back to Boston. He's sedated." I stared at him in shock.

"Just so he doesn't hurt himself. If she hadn't given him the medication, he would have broken a few more bones trying to fight her off." He began to concentrate on the road and I realized that he was hiding something.

"What are you not telling me?" I asked, seething. He had no right to interfere in my life this way. No matter what had happened between Sean and me,that was my business to handle how I felt best. My blood was boiling and all I wanted to do was pound him. The only thing stopping me was the fact that he was made of stone, and I could break my hand just by breathing on it.

"Bella, there is a side effect of the medication that she used." He stopped there apparently unsure whether or not to continue.

"And that would be?" My voice soft and shaky. Whether he had hurt me or not I still loved Sean and now I was scared. I didn't know how much had changed with him, but Sean had once tried to kill a man for simply thinking about hurting me, and now he was the one to actually cause me pain. And now, he was the one hurting, I just prayed he was permanently injured. Edward must have realized my assumption because he then quickly answered my question.

"He's probably not going to remember much of tonight when he wakes up. That is if he remembers anything at all. So it's going to be up to you on how much you want to tell him."

Wow! Could this get any better? This was quickly becoming one of the worst days of my life. Would I really tell Sean everything?

"So let me make sure I understand this correctly. You had your sister kidnap my boyfriend because you thought I _**may**_ get hurt? Did it ever occur to you that I may actually be able to handle him myself?" He had cringed when I had said the word boyfriend. He had no right to be acting this way. He had left me, not the other way around.

We were almost at the house now. We needed to talk, he needed to actually listen, but it was far too late for me to have a coherent conversation. I wasn't going to give him the option of leaving again. The air needed to be cleared. This day had drained me, and I now had a huge mess to clean up.

"Edward, when we get back, I am going to bed. You are going to stay. And when I get up, we are going to talk about the gigantic clusterfuck you have just caused me."

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**Do NOT worry. The next chapter will NOT be a kiss and make up kinda deal. **

**Leave me some love?**


	7. Breaking Bella

**Chapter 7: Breaking Bella**

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**So real life hit me like a ton of bricks. Three words can definitely change your life. I love you, Please marry me, It's a girl. Those can. The ones I heard, you have cancer, put your mind in a really heavy place. I hope this isn't dry or boring. But I make no promises. It's a necessary to progress the plot. But my head wasn't in the right place when I wrote this.**

**SM owns the playground. I'm just using the swing.**

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I awoke hours later with cool arms embracing me and a hard nose inhaling deeply in my hair. For a moment, it was sheer bliss. I was sure I was dreaming. Then, far too quickly, the reality of yesterday came rushing back. He shouldn't be here, not in my bed, not in my life. My eyes flew open, my breathing increased, and I began to panic. That is until I locked eyes on my ghost.

The ghost was smiling and staring at his pocket watch. I giggled. It was almost as if he was indicating that it was about time.

"What is it, love?" Edward breathed.

"It's nothing." I bit back. He was treating my like I was his again, and it was sending my emotions all over the place. I glanced back over at my ghost and felt Edward tense up and grip me tightly. Too tightly.

"Edward…Edward, you're hurting me." In the next instant I was pinned between Edward and the bed. He was crouched low and emitted a low menacing growl, and for the first time I was afraid of him.

"Edward stop!" I screamed. "Edward, please, you're scaring me." My voice that had started out at full volume was now nothing more than a whisper. I was scared, not of Edward hurting me; I knew he would never hurt me. I was scared of him hurting my ghost. As silly as that was, I was still terrified.

"Bella, you don't know what he's capable of or the thoughts he is having. They are moving too quickly, I can't catch it all, but he is more than what you think. I need to destroy him. He could hurt you."

It was at that moment that I burst out laughing, not exactly an appropriate response. But the thought of a stone statue attacking a transparent image? Priceless.

"Edward," I gasped, trying to bring myself back to an emotion appropriate to the situation. "You can't hurt him."

"Bella, love, please, I need to keep you safe."

My emotions went into overdrive. His arms wrapped around me as he buried his face into my hair. Edward was falling into old habits and my life was still up in the air. The roller coaster had reached the summit and it was time to let it all fall down.

I glanced over Edward's head and watched as my ghost faded away. It was time to get some answers. While picking Edward's brain about who my ghost really was would be the easiest questions to have answered, I needed to ask some other questions first.

"What are you doing?" I asked, with a bit more edge to my voice than I intended. He immediately released me and was sitting on the bed before I could even blink. He began to pick at the patchwork quilt; the pain and confusion on his face were obvious. Edward didn't even try to cover it up. He was wearing no mask. I guess some things had changed with him.

"I was just hugging my girlfriend." He spoke so softly that I almost missed the last words. I swallowed thickly. Where the hell had he gotten that idea? Was he as crazy as I thought I was?

"Edward, I am not your girlfriend. I'm your ex. You didn't want me, remember? I was a distraction and you were bored." No matter how much I tried not to believe those words, a part of me always suspected that they were true. Hell, who was I kidding? A large part of me believed that it was true.

"You know that's not true." He was picking at the blue square of the quilt, speaking softly. It was hard to hear him, let alone believe him.

"Do I? Do I really? You know me so well? You know that I knew that? Why did you leave me? And please don't give me the shit about it being for my own good because that is crap and if you had bothered to check on me you would have known that. It took me years Edward, years, to get over you. Years to get my life back to some semblance of normalcy and when I finally did, When I finally thought I could move on. Just _when_ I thought I could be normal, my world fell apart again. I moved here, thinking it was my final step, the last puzzle piece for me to heal. Only instead I find out I am living in a haunted house. Strike one. I then find out the people who I love the most in this world are here, too; although I was sure that they gave up on me years ago. Strike two. Then to top it all off I find out my boyfriend, who I have been with for the better part of a year, is a possessive, abusive drunk. Strike three. So please, before I really do need a vacation at Butler, tell me why? Why did you do it and why are you here now? The truth and all of it, please." I had been screaming at him, but by the end of my rant I was choking back sobs and barely speaking above a whisper.

"Butler?" was his reply.

So that was what he was going to focus on? This was going to be like pulling teeth without the Novocain.

"Butler is the mental hospital here, Edward. In case you haven't noticed, I'm going crazy. Please answer me." My desperation must have been apparent. Either that or he remembered how stubborn I could be. Edward actually listened to me, and began to give me some answers.

"After your birthday," he began, "I realized how dangerous it was for you to be in my company. It wasn't just me or my family either. Victoria was still out there. After reading her mind, I knew she would be after you too. So I tried to track her. I am terrible at it. I've been tracking her for the past five years and this is the closest I have been. She's here, Bella. She's still after you."

The shock was evident on my face. How much more could I take? This was getting to be too much. This was way too much. I felt myself getting light-headed and I began to sway. I took a few deep breaths and tried to steady myself. I could not pass out now. I needed to hear this, all of it.

"Go on," I told him.

He took a few deep breaths as if he was unsure if he should continue. I simply nodded and got comfortable on the bed, grabbing a pillow and hugging it to my chest. He was going to finish his explanation even if it took all day.

"I never planned on seeing you again. Last night I had been tracking her through the woods behind your house when I heard Alice. As I got closer I realized she was with you. Then I heard what you said. I had to say something."

"How long have you been here?" This was incredible. Had he followed from Forks? Had they all followed me? This put a new twist on stalking. I shuddered at the thought.

"A few months. I got word that Victoria was in Boston and tracked her. She stopped here." His voice was quiet. He still hadn't met my eyes.

"But why didn't you just tell me that? Why weren't you honest with me? Back in Forks I mean. Why did you lie? I would have waited for you to get rid of the threat, no matter how long it took. Or you could have changed me then, and we could have fought her together. Why didn't I get a say? Or a choice?"

"I thought at the time I was doing what was best. After about six months I saw the mistake I had made. I went back for you, but I saw you in the arms of that dog. He was stroking your hair and you looked so happy. It was obvious that you had moved on. Admittedly, not with who I had hoped, but I didn't feel right interfering in your happiness."

I burst out laughing. Six months after he left? Was he kidding me? The old saying about assumptions really was true. Mistake after mistake had been made, because he couldn't trust me enough just to talk to me.

"Edward, was that March? During Spring Break?"

"Yes," he answered slowly.

"Edward, Jacob and I weren't together. Not then anyway. Not ever, really." I'd explain the Jacob story later. "That was simply a friend comforting another friend. That was the day I went to find our meadow. I had been looking for it for a while and finally found it. Unfortunately, I wasn't the only one in the clearing that day. Laurent was there as well." He hissed then, guessing what was coming.

"Laurent tried to kill me. I guess that really is a routine for me. I was in shock and Jake was there. What you saw was completely innocent."

"But his thoughts…" he trailed off.

"Whatever Jacob was thinking, if it was more than friendly, I assure you it was not that way for me. At least not then. Wow. What I wouldn't give for you to be able to read my mind. At least just that once. You would have known how badly I missed you. You would have known how desperately I wanted it to be you holding me."

"Oh," he managed to say.

"Edward, you nearly killed me the day you left. I was so broken. Jake was a great friend and right there to help me put the pieces back together. It didn't do much good. I was a zombie and needed to get away from the reminders of you. That's how I landed here. I thought that this would simplify my life. Now though, now I think my head may explode from my reality."

"I'm sorry. Bella, I love you. I need to be with you. I won't be able to stay away. Not this time. I'm not leaving you again. I can't." His eyes were liquid gold and he was pleading. He looked so young and vulnerable in that moment. He was breaking my heart all over again.

"You have to."

He immediately backed away from me, but kept a firm grasp on my arms. His eyes couldn't conceal the hurt. I felt terribly, but I knew if I didn't do this right I would be right back to that shell of who I was all those years ago.

The look on his face was devastating. He was turning to leave. I wasn't ready for him to go; I just wanted some time to get through this all. He had misunderstood me. I realized he thought I meant for good. I had to fix this. Fast.

"Edward, not for good. God, not for good. I just need a little time. I just moved into a house that I am sure is haunted, I have an abusive alcoholic for a boyfriend, the family I loved and who I thought I would never see again is back in my life, and now you tell me that Victoria is still after me. It's a lot to deal with. Add to that I am in my last semester of school and I'm on thin ice with my job, seeing as how I've called out two days in a row. It's too much to deal with. Besides, I don't want us to fall into old habits. I can't risk getting my heart broken again. You don't know what it was like for me after you left. I was a wreck. It was horrible. I just need to get things settled before I let myself get my heart broken all over again. I'm not saying that I can ever even be with you again, but even just trying to be friends would be to much for me. If this relationship, whether as friends or more, goes south now I won't recover. I just need some time. It's too soon."

"No, it's not." He sounded so broken, almost like I had all those years ago.

"I'm sorry, Edward, I just can't deal with this right now."

"You have to." I turned towards the door and there stood Alice, glowing in the early morning light.

"Alice, what are you doing here?" I was honestly confused. I could feel a migraine coming on. This was all too much for any human to handle. My life was beginning to spiral out of control. I didn't like it, not a bit. I had spent years regaining some semblance of control over my life. I couldn't lose that now.

"You said we would talk in the morning. It's 7:15." Damn these Vampires and their rules. I needed some space. I needed some time for myself. I needed a Percocet.

"Alice, I have been talking to your dear brother here for the better part of an hour. I have class, school, and a family dinner tonight. So, please, can we do this another time?" Like never?

"Bella, you need to accept that we're back. We're not going to leave you again. Let us help you."

"Alice, please, don't make promises you can't keep."

Alice looked at me in disbelief. I had rendered her speechless. It made me wonder if anyone had ever done that before. I felt bad for her but I was hanging onto my sanity by a thread and couldn't risk myself for her feelings.

"Bella, I would never leave you." They said that in perfect unison. They were adamant about that. I had heard that before. There was a time in my life where I would have taken that at face value. There was a time where I would have believed them.

"You have said that before. I don't trust blindly anymore. I lived through that once. I won't survive it a second time around. So tell me how I can get you both to understand that we have some shit to work through. I'm not going to just jump off the proverbial cliff here. I have a different life now. You are both welcome to visit me in it, only because I know that if I didn't give you permission you would just barge in anyway." I mumbled that last part. I knew they heard. Hell, I had wanted them to hear it. They needed to realize just how messed up I truly was, the mess that they had caused.

With that, I left the room and left Edward and Alice to mull over what I had said. They needed to realize that I needed time. I had barely gotten myself together and it could so easily fall apart. It was time to tread carefully and be guarded with my heart. I just hoped they could understand that and I was afraid that they didn't.

I walked back into the room almost a full hour later and realized that neither of them had moved. It was unnerving. I don't even think they had blinked in that time span. Time may have stood still for them, but for me today was going to be insane.

"So, um, I have to go. I guess you can both stay here." There was an uncomfortable silence that I decided needed to be filled. And so commenced the rambling. "I have class, and since I've already managed to miss almost all of them, I need to go. After that I have work study and then family dinner. I can't miss it." And I didn't want to, family dinner was the one night a week my aunt didn't cook and we always went somewhere fun. Stef and I had convinced Cassie and Colin to work on Aunt Joyce and Uncle John. We were finally going to Dave and Buster's. It had been six long months since we hatched this plan. Who wouldn't want to play video games and eat?

In the back of my mind I realized that I may have been giving them more information than I should. There was a strong possibility that they would follow me to the restaurant. I needed to be human for a night. I was in desperate need of a normal human night, one free of vampires, ghosts, and even boyfriends. I hoped they could respect that.

I grabbed my keys and turned to walk down the stairs and out the door. I almost made it. I was waiting for the garage door to lift so I could exit when I was pulled into Edward's arms. My body betrayed me and I felt myself melting into his embrace. He gently leaned down, kissed my neck, and whispered in my ear. He would be waiting for me when I came home, whenever that would be. Smiling, I made my way to my truck and grabbed my phone out of my purse. I needed to confirm my plans with Stef and hell, I needed to have some girl talk.

As I flipped open the phone to dial the number, I received a text message. It was Alice. It was cryptic. "It will all work out in the end. Have faith and follow your gut tonight."

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**Alice will be Alice. And having you ever reacted the wrong way to an ex-boyfriend? Bella hasn't forgiven Edward, but she also still has feelings for him. Forgive her confusion, but who wouldn't be in this situation? Until next time!**

**Cassie**


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